Guidance Needed - Working with builder on a tear down and build up

[Lucky Oldham]

While doing search for investment property, I guess I went too far and decided to convert my own (current) home into rental and bought an old property which needs to be torn down and built from scratch. It may not be best investment decision but something I always wanted to do. I have done my due diligence around property, city codes, cost of built up and finances and think that if all goes well I can be in a good new home at price point I can never imagine in this area. However, since this is the first time I am using a builder to build a whole house (I have done renovations using builders) , I surely need input from this forum on what should be on my watchlist. I am worried about cost, schedule but what would you suggest I should negotiate with builder to keep the costs in check. What line items in the builder’s cost I should closely watch? Since we are in very early stage, I want to play cautiously from here itself. To give you an idea, when I asked about “allowances” he said that those are quite generous and I pointed to him that it is very subjective term viz. Generous allowance from him may seem frugal to me.

What should be my focus area now that I don’t get surprises on cost and schedule? Also, what kind of activities would be too much of interference with his work as well as not worth my attention?

Since I am going to be deeply invested in this work financially and emotionally, I want to play safe and avoid big surprises.

Thanks in advance for your feedback and guidance!